The Icewing Empire
by Galaxytiger the Healer
Summary: In Winter's Turning, Winter says that the Icewings would rule the world if the Nightwings hadn't stolen their animus. We thought that we should explore this topic more and so without further ado, may we present to you The Icewing Empire!
1. Prologue

_**Prologue**_

She snorted, revelling in the cheers of her people, bathing in the success of the Icewing Empire. As she raised her claws to the sky in celebration of the efforts of her people, a sudden jolt ran through her. Finally she wasn't the ruler of the Icewing tribe anymore, she was the ruler of the entire world! As she gazed down upon her people, the loyal citizens who had been there since the beginning, when she was but another young queen dreaming of making her people the most successful tribe in Pyrrhia. The world seemed to shake with fear as she commanded her animus dragons to isolate the Sandwings who remained, the foes who had been their greatest adversary during the war, who had slaughtered so many of her tribe. As she searched the crowd, she picked out the dragons who had been affected the most, weeping mothers, cowering dragonets, and injured war veterans, many on their last limbs. So many of her people had died or had their lives changed, whether from nightmares of friends dying, screaming for help, but they could do nothing as Sandwings tore their necks open, draining the last bit of life from their limp bodies. Some had been injured, or had lost relatives. She would avenge her fallen subjects by slaughtering the very tribe that had done the same to her people.


	2. Chapter 1

Galaxytiger

Galaxytiger had always known that she was different from the other Rainwings in her tribe, but she never knew why until today. She was in the healing hut when Rainbow came in and groaned, clutching her stomach in an agonized way.

"I shouldn't have eaten that last juiceberry! My stomach is tearing itself apart!" she whispered, her voice fuzzy.

Galaxytiger immediately turned around and made a tonic for aching stomachs, grinding one fruit after another in her mortar, silently offering it to Rainbow.

She took it, looking puzzled, then asked in a timid voice "How did you know my stomach hurt? I never told you!"

Galaxytiger looked confused for a second, then said in a strange voice, "I don't know, something just told me that you had eaten too many juiceberries and your stomach hurt..." her voice trailed off, running out of words to explain how she knew.

Rainbow was very confused and left the hut with a perplexed frown, probably going to tell her family about her strange experience with an even stranger dragonet.

Galaxytiger sat down hard on her bed in the corner, a dusty brown hammock swinging from the tree that held up the roof of the healing hut where she had grown up, without a family or anyplace to truly call hers. She knew that she was a hybrid of Nightwing and Rainwing, but that her parents had gone away and had never returned for her. Maybe she had gotten powers from that? She decided to attempt to read other people's minds, which albeit, would be much easier than trying to have a conversation with any of the people she called tribemates. As she ventured out of her hut for the first time in two weeks, she shuffled towards one of the Rainwings named Mango, and focused on her mind. Her brain was filled with two-second thoughts such as, I want a banana! A new berry! My favourite thing! I'm so tired! OOH! I wonder if Rainbow feels better!

Galaxytiger pulled away from Mango's tiring mind, with thoughts racing in and out like monkeys dashing through the leaves of the forest. She quickly flew away from her so that she couldn't be engaged in conversation about Rainbow. She glided through the branches and leaves of the rainforest, getting farther and farther away until she was in a part of the forest she had never seen before.

As she searched for any indication of how to get home, she noticed a camp nearby. Maybe they could help her? After all, some Rainwings did hunt and camp out to get more berries. She spiraled down to where a group of dragons, their scales bright shades of red and gold, sat around a fire, roasting a sloth. She knew immediately that these were not Rainwings, who would never even think about eating meat and especially not sloths! Before she could fly away, one of the Skywings spotted her, and roused the whole camp with one ecastic cry of "I found one! Up above!"

In seconds, twelve of the dragons chased her, following her through the trees, some getting tangled in the leaves, while others flew into trees. She could've escaped, if not for one dragon who had apparently mastered the Rainwing art of swinging through the trees and leaves. She camouflaged among branches, not daring to breathe for fear of being spotted. Finally, the Skywing gave up and flew back to her camp. Galaxytiger waited tensely for two minutes after the sounds of Skywings had faded from her ears, then flew back to the village with shaking wings. Suddenly, a grinning face popped up from behind a branch, and then all went dark.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Salamander

Salamander was jumping around with the other Rainwing children, who all loved to play. After what felt like only minutes, it got darker and Salamander went home to have dinner with his family. Their food was fish and berries, which he loved, but he ate quickly so he could play again. He finished so fast the other Rainwings didn't have time to finish, so he waited in the nursery for a while, but soon he got bored and went for a swim.

He saw a waterfall, but he couldn't go down it tonight because his parents came and said that it was bedtime. He was sad because he wanted to go down, but his parents Turtle and Kinkajou said no, because he had to wait until he was much older to go down, so he went to his house to go to bed. In the morning he woke up and went swimming with his friends. They were having a water fight and he tried to dodge a splash from Ginkgo, but instead he fell down the waterfall and got knocked out. A few hours later he woke up in a cage at a strange town with a Rainwing dragonet sprawled in the corner.

He walked around the room, then sat down and tried fruitlessly to sleep. After a while, he gave up and resigned himself to counting the distance between walls in the cage using his talons as measurement.


End file.
